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Prospects Rise for Clean Cooking in Poor Places

10:35 p.m. | Updated
At the Clinton Global Initiative on Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and various partners described details of a plan to curb the clouds of toxic cooking smoke killing nearly 2 million people a year in the world’s poorest places. More than 2 billion people rely on firewood or dried dung for cooking and often burn these fuels in unvented stoves or fireplaces. (The photo above was shot for The Times in Kohlua, India, by Adam Ferguson.)

The black smoke from such stoves also could be contributing to the melting of Himalayan snow and, by absorbing sunlight, can add local warming to whatever comes in a particular region from climate change.

Mrs. Clinton said the effort will include research on better stove designs, but also on how to get the right option to the right region. In many places, nonprofit groups have distributed stoves that end up being used to store grain or dumped because they don’t fit established preferences. (I’ve heard that solar cookers, for instance, have been unpopular in parts of Africa where women, to avoid heat, cook before the sun is high in the sky.)

The International Energy Agency has issued a relevant road map for providing energy to the billions on the planet who have no reasonable sources now. That report, an advance section of this year’s World Energy Report, is called “Ending Energy Poverty: How to make modern energy access universal” and will be posted later today at the United Nations Development Program Web energy page.

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By 2050 or so, the human population is expected to pass nine billion. Those billions will be seeking food, water and other resources on a planet where humans are already shaping climate and the web of life. Dot Earth was created by Andrew Revkin in October 2007 -- in part with support from a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship -- to explore ways to balance human needs and the planet's limits.